Monday, May 23, 2016

Shenanigans in the Air

Surprise In A Fishing Boat

Sometimes the urge to play while
flying is irresistible, especially on a beautiful day when one is young and
feeling frisky.

Joe Carter
and I were flying our Pawnees over the croplands of central Washington around
the town of Royal City. We were spraying
potatoes for evil little bugs intent on destroying this good farmer’s
crop. We had covered the field with
insecticide and were returning with empty hoppers to our airstrip.

It so happened we had to fly near a lake of
very blue water.Mean fellow that he
was, Joe flew up close and pointed to the lake and with strange hand signals
motioned for me to follow.I knew he was
up to some mischief which might prove interesting. I tacked on his left wing
and played along.He flew lower and
lower until his wheels were actually touching the smooth surface of the lake.I had never attempted this but figured if the
water would support his airplane it should do the same for mine.

I was surprised to find the water smooth and
solid.We were actually water skiing
along as nice as you please.Fun fun
fun!We went sailing by the point of a
small peninsula which protruded out into the lake.This bit of land was covered in large trees.
As we hurtled by this projection I suddenly realized there was a boat on the
opposite side.In the boat were two men
who were obviously fishing.Our sudden
appearance no doubt was quite startling to these sportsmen.

One of them made the quick but wrong decision
to leap to his feet.In one hand was his
fishing rod, in the other was a bottle; quite possibly an alcoholic
beverage.As he leaped up the boat
rocked to the left and then to the right at which time he lost his balance and
fell into the water.The other fellow
didn’t jump up but dropped his pole and quickly made a grab for it, coming very
near capsizing the boat.Joe and I laughed like to evil little kids. I was
glad that we departed as quickly as we appeared.I am sure there was some foul and abusive
language drifting across the waters of the lake.

Sad Ending

That reminds me of my former boss, a big German named Don Schumacher. He came upon a similar situation, but with a
very tragic ending. A small pond, two
fellows fishing. Don wasn’t buzzing them,
just flying by.

He noticed of them one
had fallen in the water and was thrashing around. Schumacher suddenly realized
the man was drowning. He hastily surveyed the situation and decided
to land in a nearby alfalfa field. As
quickly as possible he put the plane down and made a run for the lake as he
shed his shirt and shoes. He dived in to the water but the man was already
under water.

He dragged him out and
desperately applied artificial respiration. Don was an ex-marine, a strong swimmer and knew the drill. But in spite of his best efforts the man was
dead. The other man in the boat was an
older fellow who did not know how to swim.
Foolishly, they had no floatation gear.
When I landed a bit later, Don was quite beside himself because he failed
to save the man.

The Super Safe Pilot

One other tale. One of my fellow pilots, whom I will call Jim
had attended a state wide ag-pilots meeting. While there, he was awarded a certificate
and a impressive medal for his safe flying record. He had flown some 15 years, if I remember
correctly, without an accident.

Jim loved
to laugh and kid folks and he never missed an opportunity to more or less
rub it in that now he had a safe flying medal and I had none: neener-neener-neener!

A short time later Jim spayed a
field of wheat and somehow struck a fence along the boundary as he entered the
field for the last pass. One wing was
ripped off. The plane rolled over and hit the ground upside down, skidded along
and came to rest inverted.

Jim wasn’t
hurt much but this was one time he was not wearing his crash- helmet. He had on a “gimme” cap so he could pin his
safe-flying metal on the front of it. This is the gospel truth. That
small pin had cut a little trench across his forehead,starting just above his
eyebrows and on up into his hairline.

Needless to say I heard no more
about his award. Of course, I couldn't help smirking and kidding him just a wee bit. Heh heh heh.

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Dale in 1979

About Dale

Having spent a good portion of my life driving aircraft of one sort and another, and at the urging of my progeny, I begin this blog. This is an attempt to record some of my more interesting little episodes just for grins and entertainment, most of which were caused by pilot error, pilot ignorance, pilot stupidity, pilot exhibitionism, and pilot in-over-his-head-isms.

I began my flying in the middle of the twentieth century when general aviation was trying to recover from the war years and trying to convince itself that aviation had a future. Piper, Cessna, Taylorcraft, Stinson, and a few other small aircraft manufacturer were struggling to stay afloat by offering some small, bare-bones, two-place, low- horsepower type flying machines at an affordable price.

There were quite a number of ex-military pilots around, but many of these types had flown in what was thought of as "Big Iron" aircraft and weren't much interested in the general aviation Piper Cub-type puddle jumpers, so they hung up their goggles and quit flying altogether.

Then there were those who were too young to participate in WWII, but were inspired by those brave men to learn to fly themselves. That groups includes me, and these are some of my "adventures."

One of my Tail Draggers

An Ag-Cat with a 600 hp R1340 PW engine on the front

What's A Tail-Dragger?

I have received several inquiries wanting to know what a tail-dragger is and why is it called that, so a brief explanation is in order.

Most airplanes nowadays, but not all, have what is referred to as tricycle landing gear. They have a wheel up front under the nose of the ship and two main landing gear a little further back. This arrangement makes it much much easier to steer on the ground.

Typically the earlier airplanes had the two main landing gear up near the front of the plane and a small wheel at the tail end. This is generally referred to as a conventional landing gear. This arrangement gives the appearance that the tail is actually dragging on the ground.

The term "tail-dragger" is a pilot's slangy term used to distinguish between the two types of landing gear. Because the center of gravity on the conventional-geared aircraft is behind the main gear, it is much less stable around the vertical axis and requires careful attention while on the ground.